O.C. home price hits 4½-year high

This waterfront, Newport Harbor home is virtually hiddeN on Ocean Boulevard, but dominates the Corona del Mar shoreline. It was the 13th priciest home sold in 2012, going for $11.8 million.PHOTO COURTESY OF HEATHER KIDDER, SURTERRE PROPERTIES

The Orange County housing market ended 2012 on a strong note, as sales soared and prices climbed to the highest level in 4 ½ years, according to two reports released Tuesday.

The median price of Orange County houses and condos hit $470,000 in December -- up 17.5 percent from a year ago, DataQuick Information Systems reported. That's the highest price since June 2008,

Buyers bought 34,380 homes in 2012, the most deals for any year since 2006. Homes sales in December alone jumped 19.4 percent from the same month a year earlier.

Low mortgage rates and a belief that the market had hit bottom lured reluctant buyers to invest again.

"I thought 2012 was going to be very rocky," said Mission Viejo sales agent Dod Bateman of Regency Real Estate Brokers. But last year was "a lot hotter than I expected. I did not expect (the market) to come shooting up as much as it did."

Separately, the California Association of Realtors reported Tuesday that existing Orange County single-family houses sold for a median price of $582,930 in December -- up 20.3 percent from December 2011. It was the highest median for single-family homes in the association's records since March 2008. Realtors reported a sales gain of 24.2 percent.

Both year-end reports show that the Orange County home prices hit bottom around the middle of the year as home listings dropped to lows not seen for at least a decade. A drop in the number of foreclosures and "short sales" – homes selling for less than their mortgage debt -- accelerated demand and ignited bidding wars among buyers across all price ranges.

The year began with forecasts that banks would pick up the pace of foreclosures and unleash a flood of discounted homes that would depress the market.

Instead, Orange County foreclosures fell to 4,531 homes last year, down 37 percent from 2011 and 61 percent below the peak in 2008.

At the same time, lenders stepped up the pace of "short sales," allowing buyers to sell homes for less than they owed the bank. As a result, many neighborhoods were spared the blight of vacant, often decaying homes.

"This is a huge change, and beneficial to both the owner of the home and those in the neighborhood who did not feel the negative results of a foreclosure on their home values," said Costa Mesa broker Christine Donovan.

As foreclosures dwindled, the number of homes for sale also fell, dropping from 8,100 listings at the start of 2012 to 3,161 earlier this month, according to Steve Thomas of ReportsOnHousing.com. That's the lowest housing inventory in records dating back to 2004.

As listings for lower-priced foreclosures and short sales diminished, competition for the higher-priced "move up" market took off, said DataQuick President John Walsh.

"Buyers on the fence were drawn back into the housing game by amazingly low mortgage rates, a brighter jobs outlook and, in some cases, a renewed sense of urgency," Walsh said.

Donovan said more sellers have been drawn into the market as well. "More homeowners are choosing to jump in to the market and sell their homes," she said. "Hopefully, this is an indication of a return to a more normalized and healthy market."

Related Links

This waterfront, Newport Harbor home is virtually hiddeN on Ocean Boulevard, but dominates the Corona del Mar shoreline. It was the 13th priciest home sold in 2012, going for $11.8 million. PHOTO COURTESY OF HEATHER KIDDER, SURTERRE PROPERTIES
This Lake Forest home was purchased as a short sale at the countywide median price of $470,000 in December after 18 months on the market and at least five escrows. Agent Dod Bateman said the home last sold for $710,000 in 2007. PHOTO COURTESY OF DOD BATEMAN, REGENCY REAL ESTATE BROKERS OF MISSION VIEJO
This Newport Harbor home on Bayshore Drive had 2012's highest sale price for a single-family home: $22 million. The mansion also once attracted the highest sale price ever paid for an Orange County home: $35 million when actor Nicolas Cage sold it in 2008. JOHN W. ADKISSON, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
The unfinished 17,000-square-foot Newport Coast mansion with its own stables and vineyard became the third priciest sale of 2012, selling at auction for $19.425 million to a Japanest industrialist with ties to Southern California. H. LORREN AU JR., THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER, TEXT BY JEFF COLLINS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
168 Emerald Bay sold in July for $16 millon, the sixth-highest price paid for an Orange County home in 2012. REGISTER FILE PHOTO, TEXT BY JEFF COLLINS, THE REGISTER
3 Montage Way sold in September for $20 million, the second-highest price paid for an Orange County home in 2012. PHOTO COURTESY OF JOHN STANALAND
A 500-square-foot studio in The Towers in Laguna Woods was Orange County's cheapest listing of 2012. The asking price was $1. PHOTO COURTESY OF LAGUNA WOODS VILLAGE

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